The present invention relates to a travel guidance system for vehicles and more particularly to a travel guidance system for vehicles capable of computing the present position of a vehicle and displaying both a map and a present position mark on a display in which the name of an administrative division (e.g., the name of a city) to which the present position belongs and/or a landmark (e.g., the name of a well known building, major intersection, town) in the vicinity of the present position are displayed on the display.
Recently, travel guidance systems for vehicles have been developed in which as the vehicle travels, its present position is computed and displayed, along with a map on a display and a guidance system of this type generally includes (a) a heading sensor for detecting the direction of movement of a vehicle, (b) a distance sensor for detecting the distance traveled by the vehicle, (c) a map data storage medium preliminarily storing map data, (d) a control unit for receiving a heading signal from the heading sensor and a distance signal from the distance sensor to successively compute the present position of the vehicle and for generating video signals corresponding to display data including the map data from the map data storage medium and the present position data, and (e) a display responsive to the video signals from the control unit to display a map and a present position mark, thereby clearly indicating the traveling condition of the vehicle.
In the operation of a vehicle, there are cases in which the vehicle is run in a geographically strange place to the driver, etc., and in such a case the display of only a present position mark on a map cannot be said as providing the driver, etc., with a satisfactory travel guidance.